When Assassin’s Creed burst onto the gaming scene back in 2007, it was a open-world stealth game that put action at the centre of the experience. Over the years though, it has evolved to make that action more in-depth. Last year’s superb entry Assassin’s Creed Origins took the series closer than ever into role-playing terrority, enabling you to hunt down better gear and upgrade your central character.

After going hands-on with Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, we discovered that it’s no longer toying with those conventions – it’s fully embracing them. Ubisoft are making a RPG through and through, and it left us more eager than ever to return to the history loving series. Join us as we investigate the ways Assassin’s Creed Odyssey embraces its inner RPG (and one it doesn’t).

A choice of characters

Like many role-playing games, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey will let the player decide who they want to play as. Players can either choose to be a male or female Spartan mercenary named Alexios or Kassandra. Who you choose as the protagonist won’t impact the story, but player choice will play a huge role in what happens.

Dialogue options

Games like Mass Effect are built around their dialogue systems, and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey looks to have a similarly complex system. Players will be able to outsmart characters by using their wit, romance them, and learn about the lore of ancient Greece.

Multiple endings

The choices you make will have consequences, as there will be multiple endings to unlock in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. The branching story will all depend on how the player chooses to clear their missions, and what factions they side with during the Greek conflicts that occur during the story. Multiple endings have been a longtime staple of RPGs, and this is yet another example of Assassin’s Creed embracing its new genre.

Sweet romance

For the first time in the series history, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey will allow players to choose their romantic partner. That means that both Alexios and Kassandra can choose to woo either men or women. Prepare your cheesiest chat-up lines for potential paramours.

Combat abilities

The skill trees return from Origins, but add new combat abilities that you trigger by holding the left bumper (or L1) and pushing a face button. In our demo, we used LB and the A button to perform the 300-style kick that sent our foe flying, and left us wanting to bellow “THIS. IS. SPARTA!” at the poor Ubisoft representative stood next to us.

Bloody massive battles

But Odyssey isn’t all about stroking your chin over dialogue options or smooching your sweetheart in an olive grove.

Conquest Battles are huge bust-ups featuring hundreds of individual participants. It’s a new way to experience Assassin’s Creed, and a departure from the close encounters that have made the franchise a household name. We can’t wait to see if we can turn the tide of battles in them.